Royal Bank Of Canada, Scotiabank Offer Big Yields

When scouting for large-cap stocks that pay dividends,
investors don't have to look far. Sometimes they can be found in
IBD's Big Cap 20, which appears in every Tuesday edition.

In this week's list,Royal Bank of Canada (
RY
) andBank of Nova Scotia (
BNS
) are highly rated big caps that pay hefty dividends. Both are
members of the Banks-Money Center industry group, which ranked
No. 16 in Tuesday's IBD.

Royal Bank of Canada is Canada's largest bank by assets and
market capitalization. It provides commercial and personal
banking, wealth management and investment banking services.

The company currently pays a quarterly dividend of 60 Canadian
cents a share, or about 61 cents a share in U.S. currency.

On an annualized basis, Royal Bank of Canada pays $2.44 a
share (in U.S. dollars), giving it a yield of about 3.9% vs.
around 2.55% for the S&P 500. The bank most recently raised
its payout in August. Royal Bank's dividend has doubled since
2005.

In late November, Royal Bank reported fiscal 2012 earnings
that grew 8% to $4.92 a share. The company's fiscal year ends in
October.

Bank of Nova Scotia, otherwise known as Scotiabank, is
Canada's third-largest bank by assets. The company offers
business and personal banking, as well as brokerage and insurance
services.

The bank has paid dividends to its common stockholders each
year since its founding in 1832. Bank of Nova Scotia raised its
payout once in the fiscal 2011 year ended in October. It boosted
its payout two times in fiscal 2012.

Bank of Nova Scotia currently pays about 58 U.S. cents a share
per quarter in dividends, which works out to $2.32 a share
annually.

The stock has a dividend yield of about 4%, which is among the
highest in the 20 dividend-paying stocks in its industry
group.

Last month, Bank of Nova Scotia delivered fiscal 2012 earnings
that rose 9% to $4.66 a share. Analysts see its fiscal 2013
earnings rising 12% to $5.22 a share.

The company agreed to buy a 20% stake in China's Bank of
Guangzhou in 2011, but has yet to close the deal due to
regulatory hurdles.